‘The Poser’ – A novel by Jacob Rubin

THE central character in Jacob Rubin’s “The Poser” is a young man with the ability to instantaneously and flawlessly imitate anyone. Encouraged by his mother and discovered by a hack agent, Giovanni Bernini goes from being ridiculed and, often, feared by his small-town peers to garnering widespread acclaim as The World’s Greatest Impressionist.

The rest of his arc of fame follows a trajectory at which cynics will knowingly nod, and Rubin’s precise and inventive writing wonderfully captures the enigmatic character as he travels this arc as well as the philosophical questions such a character raises.

“The Poser” is an exciting debut and I recommend it for its noirish beats. It is also richly, darkly funny. The novel is set in a fictional country that resembles America in the 1940s and ‘50s, and Rubin has exquisitely created this world; it is easy to get lost in it. My one reservation concerns the handful of female characters, all written to a flat type, which I could forgive for being true to the noir genre, but I couldn’t help but be disappointed by it, particularly in a work that at its heart offers a deeply sensitive exploration into matters of identity and authenticity. (AP)